Knowing your consumer behavior enhances your marketing efforts, helping generate more revenue. According to the American Marketing Association (2024), consumer behavior refers to the study of how customers meet their needs and desires by selecting, purchasing, using, and disposing of products, ideas, and services.
Here are a few types of consumer behaviors:
Habit-buying
Variety-seeking
Dissonance-reducing
Complex-buying behavior
Impulse purchasing
(American Marketing Association, 2024; Decker, 2020 )
Other types of consumer behaviors exist. Literature often expounds on the first four; however, impulse behavior is sometimes noted. Consumer behavior is important because it allows you to market your product or service more efficiently and effectively.
Henry Assael, a renowned NYU Business School professor, developed a well-known model for consumer engagement at each of the core consumer behaviors:
Habit buying behavior consists of products and services that require little thought. These products are often purchased routinely. As you walk down the Costco aisle, you may purchase the same toilet tissue, paper towels, milk, eggs, clothing detergent, etc. You may have a few routine services that consist of haircuts, nail appointments, or other similar services. Most folks tend to trust a brand and select the products that are associated with the brand without thought.
Variety-seeking behavior is when individuals switch between offerings such as products, categories, or brands (Zhang, 2022) for the sake of diversification (Ratner et al., 1999). Perhaps the most prominent example is a restaurant or take-out. Think of a time you ordered out, and throughout your selection process, you said, “Eh, I ordered there a couple of days ago. I know it's my favorite place, but I want something else.”
Dissonance-reducing behavior involves selecting a product or service with high involvement and low differences. There is often an underlying concern of choosing the wrong or right product. What are the differences between one knife set and another? We might find ourselves contemplating and attempting to determine which is best.
Complex buying behavior consists of the approach to purchasing significant and costly items or services. Services or products that come to mind are invasive aesthetic procedures, homes, vehicles, business equipment, etc. Generally, these items have many weighing factors that consumers consider when purchasing.
Impulse buying behavior refers to random purchases made without thought. For example, you may find some of these items at the supermarket's checkout area, such as gum, soda, or tabloids. Vendors and providers strategically decide where to place these items.
Here's a framework for consumer behavior and the purchasing process stages:
Consumers' behavior toward a product or service varies. A product or service can trigger multiple behaviors. For example, consumers may practice variety-seeking behavior and then transition to habit-buying behavior. Understanding how your product or service triggers and changes a behavior enables you to create and implement effective marketing efforts.
American Marketing Association (2024). Consumer behavior. American Marketing Association. https://www.ama.org/topics/consumer-behavior/
Bhar, A. (n.d.) Consumer Behavior: Definition, factors and methods. Question Pro. https://www.questionpro.com/blog/consumer-behavior-definition/
Cespedes, F. & Nunes, P. (2003). The customer has escaped. https://hbr.org/2003/11/the-customer-has-escaped
Decker, A. (2020). How to predict and analyze your customers' buying patterns. Hubspot. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/buying-patterns
Jacquerye, F. (2020). Understanding luxury brand equity through consumer purchase decision. Medium. https://medium.com/woodshores/understanding-luxury-brand-equity-through-consumer-purchase-decision-5959577df596
Kelwig, P. (2024) Understanding customer behavior: model, examples, and segmentation. Zendesk. https://www.zendesk.com.mx/blog/consumer-behavior
Ratner, R. K., Kahn, B. E., & Kahneman, D. (1999). Choosing less‐preferred experiences for the sake of variety. The Journal of Consumer Research, 26(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1086/209547
Zhang, Y. (2022). Variety-seeking behavior in consumption: a literature review and future research directions. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 874444–874444. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.874444
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